The challenge of HIV/AIDS: Where does agroforestry fit in? - World ...

Chapter 7: Scaling up the impact of agroforestry63– KEFRI, and the World Agroforestry Centre– ICRAF) and farmers around Embu, Kenya,tested several fodder shrubs. Most of thetrials were farmer-designed and managed.Calliandra calothyrsus emerged as the bestperforming and most preferred by farmers.It was found to grow in a range of‘neglected niches’ on their farms, includingin hedges along internal and externalboundaries, around the homestead, alongthe contour for controlling soil erosion,or intercropped with Napier grass. Whenpruned to a height of 1 m, the shrubs didnot compete with adjacent crops. Growing500 shrubs increased farmers’ incomes byaround US$98–124 per year. By the late1990s, two other shrub species, Morus alba(mulberry) and Leucaena trichandra, wereintroduced to farmers following successfulon-farm testing (Franzel et al. 2003).Scaling upBy 1999, 8 years after the introduction offodder shrubs, about 1000 farmers aroundthe research sites had planted them. However,there was limited scope for reachingall the 625 000 dairy farmers in Kenya;seed was scarce, and the farmers, extensionstaff and NGOs away from the onfarmtrials were not aware of the work.During 1999–2001, KARI, ICRAF and theInternational Livestock Research Institute(ILRI) collaborated in a project to scale upthe use of fodder shrubs in central Kenya.An extension facilitator, working with arange of government and NGO partners,assisted 180 farmer-development groups(comprising 3 200 farmers across sevendistricts) to establish nurseries and plantfodder shrubs. This approach proved to bevery effective: by 2002, each farmer hadan average of 340 shrubs and had giveninformation and planting material to an averageof six other farmers. Sixty percent ofparticipating farmers were women.Beginning in 2002, a project financed bythe Forestry Research Programme of DFID(the UK’s Department for InternationalDevelopment) and implemented by theOxford Forestry Institute and ICRAF helpeda range of partner organizations to increasethe adoption of fodder shrubs. By early2003, there were about 22 000 farmersplanting fodder shrubs in Kenya and severalthousand in four other countries. Facilitatorsare helping to train the extensionstaff of a range of different organizations,including government, NGOs, churches,community-based organizations, farmergroups and private-sector firms. The projectis also helping to facilitate the emergenceof private seed producers and dealers, andto help link them to buyers in areas whereseed demand is high (Franzel et al. 2003;Wambugu et al. 2001).2. Improved tree fallows, ZambiaThe plateau area of eastern Zambia ischaracterized by a flat to gently rollinglandscape, with annual rainfall around1000 mm. Approximately half the farmerspractice ox cultivation, the others cultivateby hand hoe. Maize is the most importantcrop, and sunflower, groundnuts, cottonand tobacco are also grown.Surveys identified soil fertility as the farmers’main problem; fertilizer use had beencommon during the 1980s but was indecline as farmers now lacked the cash topurchase it (Franzel et al. 2002; Howard etal. 1997; Kwesiga et al. 1999).Development of the innovationIn 1987, a Zambia–ICRAF agroforestryresearch project began research on improvedfallows, using Sesbania sesban.By 1995, several hundred farmers wereinvolved. In researcher-led trials, farmerschose among three different species andtwo different management options – intercroppingwith maize versus growing thetrees in pure stands. In farmer-led trials,farmers planted and managed the improvedfallows as they wished. Most farmersopted for a 2-year fallow and plantedtheir main food crop, maize, for twoseasons following the fallow. Tephrosiavogelii, Cajanus cajan and Gliricidia sepiumwere the main fallow species used.Maize yields following improved fallowsaveraged 3.6 t ha –1 , almost as high as forcontinuously cropped maize with fertilizer(4.4 t ha –1 ) and much higher than maizeplanted without fertilizer (1.0 t ha –1 ).Scaling upExtension activities began in earnest in1996 when an extension specialist in theZambia–ICRAF project set up demonstrations,facilitated farmer-to-farmer visits,and trained staff from the Ministry of Agriculture,several NGOs and developmentprojects in Eastern Province. The projecthelped launch an adaptive research anddissemination network, consisting of representativesfrom several organizations,farmers’ associations and projects (Katangaet al. 2002). The extension effort receiveda big boost with the start of a United StatesAgency for International Development(USAID)-financed agroforestry project in1999, covering five districts. The Centrealso facilitated the visits of farmers fromMalawi, thus helping to launch the practicethere (Böhringer et al. 1998). Scaling upobjectives included sensitization, buildinggrassroots capacities, developing effectivepartnerships, promoting policies more conduciveto adoption, monitoring and evaluation,and conducting research on the scalingup process (Böhringer et al. 2003). By2001, more than 20 000 farmers in easternZambia had planted improved fallows(Kwesiga et al. 2003).